Yana Skakun
For startups & early-stage companies · UK-wide
Brand Photographer for Startups
Founder portraits, team photography, workspace imagery, and pitch-deck visuals — brand images that make investors and customers take your company seriously from day one.
Why startup imagery matters more than most founders realise
First impressions are compounded
For a startup, first impressions carry more weight than they do for an established business. When a potential investor, press contact, or customer lands on your site, your visual presentation communicates whether you're a serious operation. Professional imagery is one of the fastest signals of credibility at a stage when you don't yet have years of trading history.
Founders are the brand
In early-stage companies, investors back people as much as products. Founder imagery — confident, approachable, competent — is a core part of the investment narrative, the press story, and the customer relationship.
Differentiation begins early
Generic stock-photo aesthetics signal a generic company. Startups that invest in original imagery early build a visual identity that's distinctive, defensible, and genuinely theirs. That differentiation compounds over time.
What we shoot
Founder portraits
Individual and collaborative portraits for founders — website About pages, LinkedIn, AngelList, Crunchbase, investor materials, and press.
Team photography
For teams of 2–20+, a coordinated team shoot establishes the human face of your company and provides images for your Careers page, press releases, and social media.
Workspace and culture images
Your office, co-working space, or lab communicates values and environment. Culture images drive recruitment and help customers understand where you're building from.
Product and prototype imagery
If your startup has a physical product or prototype — hardware, consumer goods, packaging — brand photography that integrates people and product is significantly more engaging than product-only shots.
Pitch deck and investor materials
A clean, impactful founder portrait and a strong team shot can meaningfully improve the professional impression of a pitch deck at any stage — pre-seed through Series A.
PR and press pack images
High-resolution imagery cleared for editorial use — the format journalists and editors actually need when they cover your announcement or feature.
Startup types I work with
SaaS and B2B software companies
Deep tech and AI startups
Fintech and insurtech
Healthtech and medtech
Consumer brands at early stage
Climate tech and sustainable businesses
EdTech and learning platforms
Pre-accelerator through Series A teams
Packages
Founder Session
2 hours · Cambridge base
£345
- Pre-session brand strategy call
- Solo founder portraits (1–2 locations)
- Up to 2 outfits
- 40 edited images
- Press and web resolution
Popular
Startup Brand Day
Full day · Cambridge or on-location UK
£795
- Strategy + logistics planning call
- Founder portraits + team photography
- Workspace and culture shots
- 100+ edited images
- Full commercial + editorial licence
Custom Team Session
Half or full day · for teams of 5+
POA
- Coordinated team shoot
- Individual headshots per team member
- Group formation photography
- Workspace and environment images
- Bespoke usage licence
Questions
We're bootstrapped. Is professional brand photography worth it at this stage?
Almost always yes — especially for B2B startups where a single enterprise customer contract can be worth far more than the session cost. The question isn't whether you can afford professional imagery; it's whether you can afford the credibility gap that comes without it.
We're based in the UK but not in Cambridge. Can you come to us?
Yes. For a Full Day or Team Session, I travel to your office or chosen location and include travel in the pricing. Cambridge-based founders have no travel surcharge.
Our team is remote or hybrid. How do we handle team photography?
A few options: we can coordinate a single day where team members come to one location; we can shoot founders individually and assemble coordinated sets; or we can schedule visits to different locations if the team is widely distributed. Let's discuss what makes most sense for your situation.
We're going through a rebrand. When should we schedule a new shoot?
Ideally schedule a brand shoot to land within two weeks of your rebrand going live — so you have fresh imagery ready the moment the new visual identity launches. If timing is tight, the pre-session strategy call can be used to brief the shoot around the incoming brand direction.
Do you have experience with tech startups specifically?
Yes — Cambridge has a substantial deep tech and life sciences startup ecosystem and a significant part of my brand photography work is with technology founders and teams. I understand the context well, which helps with both the strategy and the session itself.
Book your startup brand session
Tell me about your company — what stage you're at, what you need the images for, and how many people are involved. I'll come back with a session proposal.
Get in Touch
Let's Create Together
Tell me about your vision and I'll be in touch within 24 hours.